Vitra has been one of the leading furniture brands in the world for a number of decades. Vitra combines classic pieces such as the Charles & Ray Eames collection, the Verner Panton collection, the George Nelson collection and the Jean Prouvé  collection with contemporary design from a wide range of talented designers such as Jasper Morrison, the Bouroullec brothers, Antonio Citterio, Hella Jongerius and Alberto Meda. 

The Vitra style is characterized by its philosophy of collage, an approach to the interior that aims for a friendly, warm and personal interior instead of the sterile showrooms that you often find. Its collection mirrors this philosophy of eclecticism, with every piece in both its Home, Office and Public Space collections aiming for timeless quality. Vitra was founded in 1950 as a family company by Willi Fehlbaum, the owner of a furniture factory in Basel, Switzerland. The company gained momentum as it was able to secure the European licences for the designs of Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson. These designs, which are available at Herman Miller in the United States, provided a base of high-quality unique products from which to build the rest of the Vitra product family. 

After a major fire destroyed the Vitra facilities in Weil am Rhein in 1981, a new factory and production building was designed by the British architect Nicolas Grimshaw. This cooperation was the start of a continued investigation into atchitecture, which started with the Grimshaw design and a factory by Alvaro Siza and went from the Design Museum by Frank Gehry to works from Zaha Hadid, Tadao Ando and most recently the new Vitra Haus by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron. This patronage of architects resulted in an eclectic and fascinating campus of buildings, which together form the creative heart of Vitra. Here, the designs are developed, refined and finally produced. And here, visitors can tour the Design Museum and newly opened Vitra Haus. 

The Vitra design collection has acquired a similar eclectic but balanced character, achieving a delicate but exquisite balance between formal minimalism by such designers as Jasper Morrison and Maarten van Seeveren with decorative pieces by Hella Jongerius and George Nelson, functionalist work from Charles & Ray Eames and Jean Prouvé and freeform exuberance by Verner Panton and the Bouroullec brothers. Instead of a single design aesthetic or approach, Vitra works with a design philosophy that allows for a huge range of designs to be integrally included. 

In a functional sense, the Vitra collection is subdivided into the Home collection and the Office collection, with a small subdivision for public spaces. In a practical sense, very few single products can be placed in a single group. This ambiguity, which is enshrined in virtually every Vitra product, immediately sets the tone for both the approach to the home and to the office. As part of the Vitra identity, most products have a fixed range of bright and friendly colors, enforcing their appeal and possibilities for application. Coupled to the regular collection is a range of children's furniture, which has coupled the natural appeal of the broader collection with several items designed especially for children.

Vitra is most famous for its design classics, with special emphasis for the Charles and Ray Eames collection. Their broad range of products have lost none of its relevance or popular appeal in the 60 years since their inception. With continuous evolution and development, the collection is kept fresh and current, while maintaining the integrity and intellectual purity of old by constant close cooperation and contact with the Eames Office in the United States.

Other classics include the collection of chairs by Verner Panton, a selection of pieces by French designer Jean Prouvé and the colorful and playful collection of George Nelson.

The Office collection consists of many of the same items as the home collection, but also includes a range of intelligent office systems and a wide range of office and task chairs. The basic theme in every office product is not, like in the Home collection, a single style or approach but a general philosophy of design. For the Office family, this philosophy is that of Net'n'Nest. 

The Net'n'Nest concept derives its name from the double function for the office that Vitra recognizes, that of concentrated work and of open communication. The part for communication, team work and thought exchange is dubbed ‘netting’, while the individual and concentrated task work is called ‘nesting’. The combination and balance of these 2 goals, which are opposing if not mutually exclusive, defines the range and the use of the product families in the Office collection.

The Vitra collection is very much alive, both in its relevance for both new and old products and in its innovations and new expansions to this family of contemporary design.